According to yet another report, Sprint and T-Mobile a close to agreeing a deal to merge. Or, technically speaking, SoftBank – the Japanese carrier which owns Sprint – is close to agreeing a deal to buyout the majority of Deutsche Telekom’s controlling stake in the Magenta-flavored Un-carrier.

Bloomberg reports that Sprint will offer around 50% stock and 50% cash for T-Mobile, leaving DT with around 15% ownership of the combined Sprint/T-Mobile company. The site’s sources – of course – asked to be left anonymous, and claimed that the agreement could be made official in July.

There is a lot of work to be done behind the scenes before any of the involved parties are ready to announce anything. Sprint and Deutsche Telekom initially had to agree on the price, which they allegedly have. But they still need to decide on management changes and all the legalities that need to take place.

Additional work that remains to be done includes developing a model that forecasts Sprint and T-Mobile’s future independently and together, two of the people said. The projections are key to convincing regulators that allowing a merger is in consumers’ best interests. AT&T Inc.’s $48.5 billion deal for DirecTV has given SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son more confidence that he can make a strong case, two of the people said.

And that’s without taking in to consideration any delays caused by the FCC and Department of Justice, who will both need to agree that this deal would make for a healthier U.S. market.

If the deal doesn’t go through, SoftBank could end up paying between $1b and $3B in compensation to T-Mobile. Similar to when AT&T’s proposed buyout was rejected.

About Cam Bunton

Cam Bunton, Managing Editor. A film school graduate from the University of Cumbria, UK, Cam's past life was in mobile phone retail. His passion for cell phones got him in to that industry, and then in to this one. A family man with three kids, he somehow manages to balance his work duties with family life and a runaway Twitter addiction. Follow him on twitter: @CamBunton

so the break up fee is only rumored to be $1 billion? why so little? i hope it’s more because you know this deal is getting shot down lol… why would people think it will be cheap/easy for all these customers to switch over to a new network by buying new phones?! wow

J-Hop2o6

Sprint has SOOO much debt right now.

Louie Tsang

so it’s win win either way for tmo… kinda…

Adrayven

Sprint has a way of screwing everyone around them.. including themselves.. They are like panicked drowning victim.. They will pull Tmo down with them..

not really. remember the failed ATT deal .. it caused TMO to hemorrhage customers like nobody’s business when that deal was announced … now enter Sprint. it’ll be much, much, much worse when they announce a deal. no TMO customer i know wants any part of a deal with Softbank/Sprint. me included. the minute they announce it i’ll end my line with TMO as will millions of others.

all their efforts will be for nothing because perception kills in this business. maybe DT doesn’t care because they’re looking for a way out of US business anyway .. so they couldn’t care less what it does to TMO just like they really don’t care about TMO’s surge of late.

itguy08

I dono, I’ll stick around. If I can get T-Mobile’s pricing and access to the shiny new Sprint tower a mile and a half away I’ll be golden. Vs the hole that T-Mobile has in this area (only one with a hole).

I think the T-Mobile brand will stick around as it has the best momentum.

MTNmobile

Don’t speak for the whole. I am 100% for this deal.

Son will absorb T-Mobile, operate under the Magenta brand, utilize it’s Uncarrier strategies and effectively bury whatever remains of Sprint. And he’ll do it with Legere’s help. He knows that Sprint is dying. The whole country knows it’s dying.

God willing, “Sprint” will be no more than a unpleasant memory by 2018.

David Tyler

SPRINT IS CURSED….. whatever they touch will be destroyed.

TheVorlon

T-Mobile will be the next Nextel!

MTNmobile

But what if this puts “Sprint” out if it’s misery once and for all? I’ve never once met a Sprint customer that genuinely enjoys being such. If this deal would see to the end of Sprint, and all operations go forward as T-Mobile, then nothing will really have changed at all. Other than, of course, T-Mobiles huge spectrum and subscriber gain.

I can’t see why people aren’t throwing their support behind this. Son knows that Sprint is a sinking ship. Do you honestly believe that he’d absorb the fastest growing carrier in the US, and do away with it entirely?

sushimane

come fcc and doj reject the merger. they should already know when it comes to merger people would lose their job and that’s the most important thing for merger.

Fabian Cortez

AT&T Inc.’s $48.5 billion deal for DirecTV has given SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son more confidence that he can make a strong case, two of the people said.

AT&T Mobility and DirecTV operate in two different industries.

This man’s [foolish] ambitions will crash and burn.

Jarobusa

Not completely true. U-Verse

Fabian Cortez

Not completely true. U-Verse

What are you talking about? What about U-verse? Don’t just post because you want to post.

DirecTV operates a satellite TV business with spectrum that is not licensed for mobile.

So again, this goes back to my original comment. Son is even more foolish if he thinks that AT&T (as a whole) making an offer for DirecTV (a satellite TV provider), a deal that has not been approved I might add, will pave the way for Sprint (a wireless carrier) to merge with T-Mobile (a wireless carrier), especially when the government made it clear that they want four national carriers.

The two are not comparable at all.

Let us also not ignore the improvements, advancements, and disruption that T-Mobile has introduced into the marketplace since said announcement.

I’d even argue that T-Mobile has done more since the AT&T deal than all that they’ve done since DT assumed control of VoiceStream et al. back in 2001.

UMA_Fan

When you really think about it there is virtually no chance of the Sprint brand surviving this. It makes it a tougher sell to regulators and secondly everything T-Mobile is doing is working. If you owned both entities would you really throw out the working entity out the window in order to bolster the one that doesn’t work?

DT owning 15% of the combined entity gives credit to the rumor that the T-Mobile brand will be the surviving one with Legere in charge. They will just augment Sprint spectrum onto what T-Mobile is doing.

I can see this being sold to the government because both companies combined are still not the size of either Verizon or At&t.

One huge unstated positive is the death of CDMA in the US. This will significantly drive up handset pricing for Verizon from manufacturers (which is a good thing for such a large company) but a lot of that won’t become relevant as VoLTE matures. That being said it will be a LONG time before VoLTE matures to a point where Verizon won’t include CDMA on the phones.

If they follow the MetroPCS merger model basically when Sprint customers come to upgrade they will be getting phones that work off gsm/t-mobile LTE. Migrating off the core Sprint network naturally. When a good chunk have done this they will likely refarm the cdma spectrum into LTE.

Even on the off chance the Sprint brand prevails there is no way from a technological perspective gsm is getting decommissioned. There is too much revenue

Timothy Wallis

I agree with you that they would keep GSM over CDMA, but I have some points I’d like to make.

First of all, Sprint is rolling out CDMA right now… They are deploying LTE on 850/1900/2500 Mhz and CDMA voice on 850 Mhz. The were originally not decommissioning CDMA anytime soon. Wasted money. Maybe 5+ years for a realistic shutdown.

Secondly, you would have soo much spectrum with one company that concessions will have to be made.. I question which bands they would give up. Probably 2500 Mhz because it is the least important as far as coverage goes and you can still maintain high speeds with AWS and 1900Mhz. But keep in mind, you still might be running LTE on 5 bands for awhile. So is sprint going to get a 5 LTE band phone with both CDMA and GSM?

The reason the MetroPCS switchover is going so smooth is that MetroPCS had LTE on the same AWS band that T-Mobile uses and that most the users were prepaid and switch phones often. That meant for MetroPCS users, they got immediate benefits by a much larger LTE network with the same MetroPCS phone. They also were switched over much quicker because the type of user they were.

If Sprint and T-Mobile were to combine, there is no clear cut path to what they wil want to be. There is a lot of differing choices in their current rollout strategies and customer base.

xmiro

Voce and LTE already runs on PCS on both networks. And T-Mobile phones already support 850mhz spectrum so they’ll use that ASAP for better coverage. The rest of Sprint will be migrated easily since new customers and upgrades well get GsM phones

Timothy Wallis

Not really. I’ve heard of T-Mobile starting to deploy LTE on PCS, but haven’t actually seen any official word of it. Right now it is LTE on AWS, HSPA+ on PCS, 2G on PCS, and soon to be LTE on 700 Mhz a block. On top of that they have roaming for 850 Mhz GSM for on AT&T, but none themselves. That GSM 850 Mhz is not compatible with 850 Mhz CDMA.

They have no overlap besides the eventual PCS LTE rollout, which is sparse in spectrum for T-Mobile. And as I said, Sprint is actually currently deploying CDMA during their network restructure, so they aren’t looking to retire that soon.

Besides all that, it really depends on a phone by phone basis right now. The nexus 5 is probably the only phone I can think of that has all the bands necessary to support both networks.

Michael Lynady

As a former T-Mobile customer and current Sprint because of work I hope it happens and Legere is in charge-wood be a good day

maximus1901

Why do you think Legere is out to benefit you at the expense of his shareholders? Really that stupid?
Legere would be just as home at att or verizon. His job is to make his bosses money. With TMO, the way to do that was to acquire millions of customers at huge cost to force sprint to buy them. You benefitting is a side effect of his main goal of making tmobile valuable enough to sell.

Michael Lynady

Legere will go wherever he gets paid-so, me stupid? Not even close. You on the other hand will be up for debate

remember the failed ATT deal .. it caused TMO to
hemorrhage customers like nobody’s business when that deal was announced
… now enter Sprint. it’ll be much, much, much worse when they
announce a deal. no TMO customer i know wants any part of a deal with
Softbank/Sprint. me included. the minute they announce it i’ll end my
line with TMO as will millions of others.

all their efforts will
be for nothing because perception kills in this business. maybe DT
doesn’t care because they’re looking for a way out of US business anyway
.. so they couldn’t care less what it does to TMO just like they really
don’t care about TMO’s surge of late.

xmiro

Doubt it. T-Mobile stopped investing in it’s network while at&t was busy lying to everyone. They also didn’t have the iPhone so people fled

MTNmobile

That type of thinking is short-sighted and ill advised. People automatically assume that, in the event of a SoftBank buyout, they’ll suddenly be Sprint customers. With proper marketing and education, the new T-Mobile will make itself known as a powerhouse in the market.

I’m willing to bet that SoftBank buys T-Mobile and does away with the Sprint name entirely. The new company would have all of T-Mobile’s philosophies and momentum, and all of Sprint’s spectrum. I can’t understand how anyone would be against that.

maximus1901

You’re a fool if you think TMO-sprint will continue the same policies of TMO. Huge fool.
TMO started the uncarrier stuff because it HAD to. With TMO gone, sprint is free to start tightening the screws because people will have nowhere to go but att, verizon.
Say good bye to unlimited data. Why offer it when the alternative is $10/gig on att, vzw? They’ll still offer something better but it won’t be as good a deal with TMO gone.

MTNmobile

Because that’s how you succeed in business? By offering what the others don’t. You’re mistaken if you think they’d do away with Uncarrier and even hope to hold on to their subscriber base, SoftBank or no SoftBank. As it’s been stated ad-nauseum, Uncarrier isn’t going anywhere.

And name calling, as attractive a person as it makes you, doesn’t fortify your position.

KingCobra

You’re being way too gullible if you think Son would have any incentive to continue Uncarrier or maintain lower prices. AT&T/VZW have thrived for years with similarly high prices and maintain 50% margins. Son will price the company similar to them so that he can achieve those margins as well. There is no incentive to offer low prices and things like unlimited data when you’re about the same size as your only 2 competitors. He’s a businessman and he wants those margins too.

exactly. this Uncarrier stuff would be dead on arrival. TMO would essentially be no more and Softbank would shove Sprint down people’s throat. only the uninformed would think they’re trying to buy TMO to continue its Uncarrier moves. no my friend. they will end that in a heartbeat.

and as soon as it’s announced, like i said people will leave by the millions. but then maybe TMO is being smart. they might know it won’t pass and Softbank will owe them billions of which they’ll turn around and use to better their network ala the failed ATT deal.

Albert

That’s a good point. My sentiments exactly.

kalel33

There was alot of hemorrhaging during that time but it wasn’t nearly all because of AT&T. T-mobile gutted and changed their customer service to be the worst in the industry, after winning 13 out of the last 14 times straight, and they instituted a number of negative changes to policies.

Tommy

I have a feeling that this is just a rouse to cash in on the compensation money. I mean I’m sure they want to sell a debt ridden branch in tmobile but their real hope is to get the break up deal compensation because they know the DOJ will reject it. But ultimately I think DT will be happy with either way that this deal turns out.

Cornelius Hardy

I still vote no

Guest

If they play their cards right this could be a big deal. Sprint has a good chunk of low-band spectrum from Nextel that can be leveraged into the markets where TMO’s current penetration is non-existent.

xmiro

Up to $3b break up fee? First at&t, now Son & SoftBank. You have to give it to Hoettges he knows how to sucker an egomaniacal buyer in.

That said T-Mobile is going to be the surviving entity/brand along with it’s management, and would get a nice strip of 800mhz spectrum.

TechAce01

I’m starting to wonder why these rumors keep spreading? What good can come of it? T+mobile has finally turned around and is doing well so why start to scare people more that they can’t make it? What their current CEO has done is still working.

Also Sprint had the largest portion of spectrum out of the four. It’s their own fault that they just recently fallen to fourth place. AND sprint got a huge supply on money in that Softbank deal. That wasn’t too long ago. Why can’t they at least wait and see how that helps Sprint?

Why Can’t both carriers stand on their own and fight to make it? Is that so bad?

Jay J. Blanco

Its going to be tough but it would be nice to see how them not merging plays out. Nut like i said before Softbank should have bought tmobile in the first place. Now they are having second thoughts with Sprint lol which is funny to me.

xmiro

Sprint CEO said Son told him before he even acquired Sprint he planned to buy T-Mobile as well

Jay J. Blanco

Well that’s a-lot of debt on that note

Marvin Lilmarv Bolden-Mitchell

U look funny lolol

MTNmobile

Neither carrier will make a dent in the duopoly’s holding in the market. They are a force to be reckoned with as one. What’s so wrong about an Uncarrier with Verizon’s spectrum and market share? I’m crossing my fingers for a deal.

TechAce01

T-Mobile Uncarrier tactics has already had an effect on the Big two. Verizon and AT&T didn’t have any plans to create something like jump until T-mobile did it. Sprint has the spectrum. With a new CEO or a change in direction, they CAN compete again. They are their own worst enemy right now.

You asked “What’s so wrong about an Uncarrier with Verizon’s spectrum and market share?” On the face of it, nothing. If the Uncarrier removes a contender on the marketplace, then the answer becomes clear. It would be bad for the consumer. The less people competing for your dollar, the less they have to do to attain it.

Just like is was bad for AT&T to merge with T-mobile, It’s bad for Sprint to. Heck, Sprint itself laid out the case why this is bad for the consumer.

Also, If they have the money to buy T-Mobile, Why can’t Sprint take that SAME money and improve their service?

MTNmobile

Because Sprint is dying. There is such a thing as a business being past the point of no return. Can they spend the money to improve? Absolutely. Will it be even remotely as fast on return as joining with The Uncarrier? Not by a long shot.

You’re argument ignores the fact that Sprint is the only major carrier that is losing customers. At this rate, they’ll cease to exist as the company we all know in a few years. And then what? We’ll have three major carriers, just the same. Except, in that scenario, Sprint is in shambles likely to be picked up by one of the big two, or auctioned off for scrap. And Magenta won’t stand a chance.

TechAce01

Just because a Company is losing customers doesn’t guarantee failure. There has been many companies that’s came back from the brink of oblivion. That’s one of the reasons for bankruptcy if a company gets really bad.

Sprint can get out of this. They have the money, they have the spectrum, they just lack the vision and leadership to pull them out of this mess.

Also T-mobile don’t NEED to be on top. They only need to be profitable, provide great service to their customers, and trive. Not every business sit at the top.

randian

“There has been many companies that’s came back from the brink of oblivion”

Case in point: Apple.

LNGTR204

Which was saved by Microsoft, speaking of case in point.

ericdabbs

God you have no idea what you are talking about. Sprint isn’t going bankrupt. In fact they have been doing a lot better than they were in 2007. They definitely have hit a rough patch in Network Vision deployment and not to mention that the Tmobile Uncarrier campaign has been working. Honestly Tmobile offering to buy out the ETF fees is the major reason why Tmobile has been getting a huge influx of Sprint, AT&T and Verizon customers despite their service being better.

philyew

It’s a nice idea, but the reality is that Braxton Carter was talking about achieving 50% margins as the merged 3rd player just a couple of weeks ago.

If that is the end game, then Uncarrier is doomed. From a consumer point of view, the desirable outcome of the Uncarrier strategy is that it drives down margins across the industry to the 34-36% (or less) which TM reported in their 5-year guidance at the start of the year.

In order to grow to 50%+, as enjoyed by Verizon now, they will have to increase their ARPU, which is currently around 14% less than Verizon. That means taking more money from each customer every month….and effectively becoming no different to AT&T or Verizon.

KingCobra

Exactly. Some people are gullible and think Son will lower prices just out of the goodness of his heart. With T-Mobile his company will be large enough where he doesn’t have to lower prices to compete. He’s a businessman first and he wants those 50% margins that Verizon has.

bkin94

The higher margins could also be achieved by synergies. If they are conservative with spending, they can get the high margins without raising prices to the “big two” mark

philyew

If that is so, then there must be considerable inefficiencies in the Verizon operating model, as the difference in margin they enjoy is clearly assisted by income inflated by higher service prices.

On a similar scale, if you are not going to match their prices, then you must be able to be considerably more efficient to make up the difference.

I don’t believe it. Why would Verizon deny themselves the opportunity to be even more competitive by tolerating that level of inefficiency in their own organization?

randian

Big company mergers predicated on efficiency gains via elimination of redundant staff and infrastructure rarely work out as advertised.

vrm

you latch on to a notion and never let go. You are WRONG- get it ? Margins have to do with revenue vs costs. Margins can be increased without raising ARPU.

Read the latest at&t announcement- their next signings are causing lower ARPU but their margins are still good.

philyew

I’m fully aware of how margins are calculated – I’ve worked with them for years. Of course you can improve margins by either increasing revenue or reducing costs.

It does however follow that, if you increase your volumes to be roughly comparable to Verizon, but with average revenue per user significantly less, then the only way that your margin can match theirs is by being significantly more efficient in your operation than them.

Do you actually believe there is a foreseeable point at which a merged entity from TM and the train wreck which is Sprint can possibly be that much more efficient than Verizon so they can match their margin without raising prices? Not only that, but that Verizon is itself so inefficient to start with?

In any case, neither consideration addresses my greater concern which is that any company which targets a 50%+ margin cannot conceivably be considered pro-consumer – the way TM have consistently characterized their Uncarrier initiative.

kyo251

Philippino company pdlt global signed up with T-Mobile as us mvno

notyourbusiness

Come on FCC and DoJ, do your jobs here! I honestly don’t see why this proposed merger wouldn’t be nixed just like in 2011, when AT&T wanted to scoop up T-Mo.

MTNmobile

AT&T + T-Mobile = Juggernaut carrier with more subscribers than any other.

Sprint + T-Mobile = A viable number three carrier. Big enough to matter, small enough to prove something.

How can anyone not see the difference here?

Timothy Wallis

Because that is a vast over simplification.

From a customer stand point, you are talking about evening the playing field. From a technical standpoint, the AT&T integration would be vastly simplier to merge. Sprint and T-Mobile run vastly different networks on different frequencies with different business models. Integration will take half a decade at least.

Are you willing to wait? I’m not. Besides the fact that there really is no need. They both are in fine positions, just not optimal.

KingCobra

Prove what? How is 3 viable carriers working out for competition up in Canada? It just serves to make Sprint big enough to form an oligopoly with AT&T/VZW. Unless you’re a shareholder, you don’t benefit from this.

Wilfredo Martinez

This deal is in no way shape or form going to happen, two different networks, CDMA and GSM, one thing in common only LTE. The U.S can’t go from duopoly with current competition because T-Mobile and Sprint on their own do provide competitive pressures to Verizon and AT&T to an oligopoly that is worse. An oligopoly of 3 equal competitors is not going to create competition. People would need to upgrade their phones, the new company would have to order phones that support all their new frequency bands including CDMA and GSM at the same time… It sounds like a major mess that would become very COSTLY. And the worse of it all, U.S consumers would only have 3 players to choose from for nationwide coverage.

MTNmobile

Do you honestly believe that T-Mobile can keep up this pace much longer? This year has been a Hail Mary if I’ve ever seen one, and it’s simply not a big enough company to keep it up much longer. At this rate, we’re looking at a serious problem by Q1 2015.

And merging a CDMA and GSM carrier, while time consuming, is not the minefield you think it is. It just takes time to transition all subscribers from CDMA to GSM.

Also, three real carries is greater than two real carriers and two budget carriers.

philyew

Here’s a question: at what margin do you think that the merged entity should operate?

MTNmobile

I don’t particularly care what margin they operate at, but I know they don’t need 50% to sit pretty- no business does. If SoftBank bought the controlling stake in T-Mobile, and proceeded to jack everything up just to get to the same profit margin as the big two then people would leave. Pissing people off isn’t a great way to do business. You know what is? Offering a comparible network experience as AT&T and Verizon at substantially lower cost. This would force the other two to drop their ridiculous margins to stop the hemorrhage of customers.

I’m not talking economics with you. I’m talking common sense. In the meantime, why don’t we all stop complaining about the possible effects of something that may or may not happen. If you want to jump ship at first confirmation, that’s fine. Incredibly foolhardy, but fine.

philyew

I’ve never said I would jump ship early or at all, and have certainly been arguing against any premature exit, unless there is a better deal which stands on its own merits.

We seem to agree about the ability to survive at a lower margin, but it’s Braxton Carter’s words a couple of weeks ago that concern me. He talked about the viability of a third entity and the achievability of a 50% margin without increasing prices.

Unless he sees major inefficiency in the Verizon operating model, he must know that their ability to sustain 50% margin is built on the fact that their ARPU is much higher than TM’s.

In other words, as long as the current TM management team intend to pursue comparable margins, and without a relationship that allows them to change their product range, then they will have to increase ARPU which of course spells bad news for consumers – and spells an end to the Uncarrier strategy.

randian

Verizon’s ARPU is created by lockin. You can’t take your expensive Verizon smartphone to another vendor. It’s a lot easier for AT&T and T-Mobile to poach customers from each other than from Verizon.

philyew

I would have thought that impacts their volumes rather than their revenue per user…ARPU comes from services consumed and pricing.

ericdabbs

Will people quit assuming Sprint and Tmobile will switch to each others 3G technology. Its really annoying. ITS NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! The convergence for both companies will be with LTE and VoLTE. Until VoLTE is stable and reliable, Sprint and Tmobile will not waste their money converting to each others 3G technology.

LTE is what all the major carriers will use and until Sprint and Tmobile have full LTE nationwide coverage of their 3G footprint nothing is going to change between the 2 companies. It will be business as usual as both companies continue to ramp up their deployment projects to get LTE up as fast as they can.

KingCobra

Greater for whom? Do people really just take Son’s word that he will lower prices once he buys T-Mobile and doesn’t have to? What’s to stop him from just raising them to AT&T/Verizon levels so he can maintain the same 50% margins that they have? It’s not like consumers would have anywhere else to go at that point.

Wilfredo Martinez

Actually yes, T-Mobile can keep up with this, especially once they start building out their 700 MHZ frequency they just recently got from Verizon and when they get their hands on that 600 MHZ frequency as well. Customers want reduced prices with decent coverage, the problem with T-Mobile is that it lacks indoor coverage because of it only uses high frequency bands for it’s cellular services. Once they get their hands on the low band spectrum they will be able to work very well indoors. More customers will move to T-Mobile because of low prices and decent coverage, plus their innovative stunts. Three carriers are not better than two real carriers and two budget carriers! Three large carriers WILL collide and have fixed prices, fixed services, no innovation just look at Canada’s wireless industry! Three players that all have similar pricing and devices, barely any competition. Without a 4th underdog competitor, there wouldn’t be any competition unfortunately, there’s no underdog company pushing the envelope trying to get customers from its competitors because all 3 companies will be happy the way they are, each of them having 33% of the market share which is exactly what is happening in Canada. Do we want this to happen to U.S consumers as well? Absolutely not! In history I have never seen any merger of two companies, where you are reducing the number of competitors from a low number such as from 4 to 3, cut prices. It is incredibly unlikely, not only will it eliminate thousands of jobs but it will reduce consumer choices and create an equal amount of companies that will collide. Softbank better get ready to pay Deutsche Telekom that 1 billion break-up fee because this un-proposed merger will not happen.

TMOB2B

Already having a negative effect, I lost a 75 line tablet deal today because the IT manager flat out said “I want nothing to do with Sprint, sorry , call me when this all shakes out”

I had another customer call and cancel an appointment I set, owner said he will wait it out and see what happens ,but he does not want to entrust his telecom and data solution to a company in transition. This was 500 line opportunity with tablets and tracking devices……poof , gone.

UMA_Fan

Well it’s still in speculation territory for now so how does the IT manager expect it to ‘shake out.’ Sounds like a complete moron to me. Secondly the same speculation points to T-Mobile being the surviving brand with Legere in charge so this pushes the IT manager into idiot territory.

TMOB2B

I really do not blame him, he was burned by Sprint and does not want to deal with them again. My co-worker had an order cancelled today, 25 lines. They were switching from Sprint and now are going with ATT.

TEARAWAYZ

Don’t worry I’ll take care of them if they come to Att lol. We have b2b openings you should check them out :-) sprint is a joke and so is mayoshi’s claim that sprint needs tmobile. He needs tmobile to save face, it was a horrible disaster that they purchased sprint and not tmobile when they could have at the time. I see sprint customers jump ship to ATT all the time and it’s always network issues, slow internet, or bill is off. Sprints answer to anything network is that a tower is down or they are putting one up (for years on end) true story ask some of their customers they’ll tell you, get used to it quick. If this happens better hope tmobile’s management is in charge and they stay competitive, doubt it’ll succeed if the network stays subpar at higher prices. Also they should definitely get rid of the sprint brand, it’s garbage. Tmobile or even SoftBank USA or something along those lines would go a long way In starting over with customers.

TMOB2B

wow, someone making sense in here, hard to imagine coming from an ATT employee ;)

Spot on though, Sprint is garbage and I have been feasting on their customers for over two years.

TMOB2B

and you can call them “idiots” all day long, it’s irrelevant, the fact is the mere mention of Sprint in the same sentence is chasing away potential customers.

MTNmobile

So take Sprint out of the equation. You need to explain the benefits of a potential SOFTBANK purchase. Sprint isn’t buying anybody.

TMOB2B

We went down that road, I am a top ten percent sales rep, thanks, I know how to sell. This same exact thing happened when ATT came into the picture. There is no dispute, TMO sales plummeted and were next to non existent in B2B as companies do not want to deal with a company in transition and uncertainty.

IT manager asked, will you be CDMA or GSM? We have no answer, we do not know……

And nobody is going CDMA. You should at least be able to confidently assure your customers of that.

TMOB2B

Really? Where can you back up that statement ? When dealing with Fortune 500 companies you better be able to back up what you say when you walk in the door and start making such bold statements

Please provide me a document or official statement that clearly states with 100 percent certainty CDMA would not be the technology chosen.

I can provide my email address for you to send this to

UMA_Fan

Legere said at CES: The T-Mobile brand and what we’re doing is here to stay.

Your answer is easy: GSM. You have absolutely NO reason to think otherwise. The damn thing isn’t even official. It’s STILL speculation. This ‘speculation’ has been going on endlessly. There’s really not much ‘news’ here.

TMOB2B

Ok, so since legere said thats a guarantee? Legere also publicly said we will have 100 percent of our network upgraded to 4g by end of 2014. I can tell you that WILL NOT happen. I have already spoken to the engineers and we will not come anywhere close to achieving this.

When a customer says if this goes through will you be GSM or CDMA, I cannot in good faith say GSM, how in the world can I ? Nobody knows and there are no guarantees to anything of the sort

philyew

Except that he didn’t say that. He said that the upgrade to LTE would be completed by mid 2015.

I agree that he can’t make assurances about the future of the T-Mobile brand because he doesn’t control ownership – it’s owned by Deutsche Telekom, but they may be willing to license its use to the newco, if they are to retain a minority stake, as is now being suggested.

chardog

It isn’t a matter of GSM or CDMA anymore… Everything is going to LTE, which is apples to apples use of spectrum. Then its merely a matter of compatible frequencies, not technology. Either way, uncertainty creates panic for customers that want stability.

UMA_Fan

It’s your job to explain, at the very least, the reality of the situation… and the reality of the situation is it’s ALL speculation. There’s speculation going all kinds of directions. All equally unverified. John Legere, for his part, has given you more than enough confidence that you can point to that shows the T-Mobile brand isn’t going anywhere. He’s even said as much beginning from CES early this year. That’s a lot more reputable than unsourced articles. And even if you go by all the press that’s been written about this that exists there still is a ton written about how the T-Mobile brand would be the surviving one along with the T-Mobile management team. I just can’t see people like Neville Ray (The CTO) given the boot. No one’s even heard of the Sprint CTO.

TMOB2B

Can I say with 100 percent certainty to any customer that the Tmo brand will survive ? Has this been put into a letter of intent or a contract? If so , please let me know so I can provide this to all my potential customers.

Exactly my point, it’s speculation and uncertainty . B2B is not retail, IT people do not want to deal with the unknown. They would rather wait it out……exactly as my customer stated…..but that doesnt help sales onw.

UMA_Fan

Like someone said earlier it’s your job to place confidence in that. You can’t be crying over press not being in your favor. It’s your job to spin it. Plain and simple. Still it’s not even a hard to reach for spin because it could still go a multiple of different ways. Only a handful of people on Earth right now have a good idea how this is going to go down and it might never even go down.

TMOB2B

Again, you’re missing the entire point and you said it yourself, it can go a bunch of different directions. Companies do not want to invest the time and effort in something that very well might change!

No different than when Sprint went from Direct Connect to Sprint Direct Connect, TOTAL DISASTER, companies bailed left and right because they did not want to deal with the unknown AND the integration nightmares.

Whether is happens or not is IRRELEVANT for sales purposes NOW. Companies do not want to deal with the unknown.

philyew

Do you want to win this contract?

The fact is that they won’t be dealing with the unknown for at least a year, most likely two. What are their risks? What do they fear is known now which will become unknown over the next 24 months?

What is their period of commitment if they sign? How much of that period do you seriously have to reassure them about?

What’s their investment? How much of that investment is genuinely at risk?

What are their projected savings by going ahead with TM? They are GUARANTEED to lose those savings, if they duck out now. Balance that certainty against the risk.

TMOB2B

this is not a simple cell phone solution. This is tablets, vehicle trackers, paperless forms, back end payroll integration , and a wireless bar code scanning solution integrated into their parts ordering system

I sell solutions , far more complex than here are 75 iphones.

philyew

OK, you said it was a “75 line tablet deal”.

You still need to consider how the complexity of the solution actually changes the basic consideration of risk/reward that any IT manager worth his salt has to go through when recommending a contractual investment to his company.

It seems that you don’t want to even try to approach this positively, and would prefer to tell everyone why this is a disaster. Fair enough.

TMOB2B

I didnt feel the need to explain my deal, its irrelevant…….and it is 75 line tablet, and I said many times, I do not blame the IT guy at all.

I am not the only one with these types of solutions, handsets are a small part of what we sell now, its saturated, B2B sells solutions, if you only sold handserts you wont be around very long

philyew

The complexity of the solution does make a difference, if the back end services can’t be decoupled from the network services, and migrated elsewhere, as necessary.

The cost benefits would have to be significant to persuade me to multiply the risk with such a dependency.

vrm

they are ALWAYS dealing with an unknown, with tmo unwilling to live on its own. Unless they at least pretend to WANT to exist as a business, WHY should any customer believe that they will ?

Instead of asking salespeople to lie and BS, ask your SELF this Q- is tmobile a co that wants to exist a year from now ? Not whether they will but whether they WANT to exist. If not, the only certainty is that tmobile will be gone and even that is not certain if this deal gets shot down. But then, the next deal comes along… See ? Its not hard to understand the uncertainty of their future- lying and spinning doesn’t change facts.

philyew

Spending $3.4 billion on 700 MHz A block spectrum, which cost Deutsche Telekom 7% of their share of the company, is sufficient indication for me that TM have a growth plan, with or without an imminent takeover.

philyew

Having previously been in the IT manager’s situation, I can tell you that the following are the issues you need to address to neutralize his concerns:

a) The timeline of the deal in terms of when it could possibly have an impact on operational performance. The deal will take a year, and significant changes to the network AT LEAST another year. By that time, he will need to consider renewing any hardware he has acquired anyway, so he is not trapped on a declining network waiting for a significant capital investment to depreciate;

b) The portability of the hardware he is considering using. Will it work on another network, with another carrier? If so, he has no need to be concerned about being trapped with TM until he can afford to go out and buy new equipment.

c) A new company cannot force a change of contractual terms without the customer being free to opt out and go elsewhere. As long as you can assure him about (a) and/or (b). There is no problem.

d) Whatever reason he previously considered to be a good reason to bring his business to TM remains 100% relevant. He can take advantage of the benefits he perceived for a year with 100% confidence and beyond that with a very high level of confidence, even if Softbank is by then the owner. Over the second year, what little risk he has diminishes to zero. In the mean time, his company is saving a considerable amount from the terms he is able to sign up for now.

I’d buy that. I bought it in the past and saved my employer a sack of money.

TMOB2B

Wanna bet? Read Tmo’s MCSA agreement, amazing any B2B customer actually signs it, more or less buried in there we can change anything we want anytime we want.

philyew

You mean the ‘no contract’ Uncarrier is still imposing those kind of contractual conditions for B2B customers? Interesting.

I’d assumed that they had reflected their consumer Uncarrier approach in the B2B area.

Even the old consumer contract says quite clearly that cancellation for cause waives termination penalties.

TMOB2B

An MCSA is different than the standard contract and yes, we still have contracts in B2B , we do very little value plans. What company wants to lay out the cash for 100 iphones or 100 S5.

Value works great for field service that want a feature phone only that can get beat up and is cheap to replace

MTNmobile

As a rep, I’d say it’s your job to assuage any such nonsense. You lost that deal, not a bunch of rumors on the internet. Perhaps your own negative preconceptions of any such deal are hindering your ability to provide what your customers need-

Confidence.

TMOB2B

Yes, my job is to be honest with my customers. Customer asked, is this really a possibility, “yes it is”. Customer then stated he wasn’t moving forward. Sales Manager got on phone explained its Softbank and not Sprint , bla bla, customer didn’t care. Point blank, we want nothing to do with Sprint call me when it shakes out and if Tmo is really running the show, great, we will talk. If it’s Sprint, we will not and likely move our voice lines.

MTNmobile

He’ll be back.

But not until people stop spouting nonsense about things far beyond their paygrade on unofficial news sites. Trust Legere, he’s not given you a reason to doubt his business savvy yet.

kalel33

Legere himself has stated they’d be open for a Sprint deal.

MTNmobile

I’m aware. And I agree with him.

James Kozak

if people are going to leave because of it i bet not. im dont want it too happen.

ericdabbs

I just hope Sprint will keep Legere if a merger were to go through. I think he would be a key executive in helping them turn their image around. For all we know I see Sprint perhaps keeping Tmobile as a separate company for awhile until VoLTE can be merged.

TMOB2B

I wouldn’t doubt if this is all a ploy to get the breakup fee and any possible spectrum…..but that’s irrelevant for the immediate impact on our sales. I would LOVE to see some spectrum and a 2B break up fee and then have it all fall through !

Legere was brought in to raise the stock price, period. He did it, great job, now we will be sold, just to who….

Serge

Wow, you don’t sound confident in your company when you say ‘Legere was brought in to raise the stock price, period.’

We have already discussed that before. There is no difference between a company that tries to be a long term winner and what T-Mobile is doing. So they blew $100 million in Q1 on ETF buyouts. It sounds like a lot of money but their advertising budget have been $800-1000 million annually in the previous years. Not only ETF buyouts are within the budget but they are probably more efficient than TV ads. Masa Son was mad Sprint was spending hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising with virtually no results.

What else makes you think T-Mobile is doing something unsustainable? $130 million loss in Q1? That’s nothing. They could have spent less on the network upgrades and made some profit. But why slow down the network upgrade? It doesn’t make sense. What about 700A spectrum purchase for $2+ billion and $4+ billion EDGE to LTE upgrade? These are absolutely unnecessary actions if DT just wanted to dump T-Mobile.

The deal is not a sure thing yet. If it’s not signed by August they will drop it. If it’s not approved by the FCC and DoJ it will fail.

itguy08

In addition just because a company has a loss does not necessarily mean it will go bankrupt. Look no further than Amazon.com – never turned a consistent profit in 20 years….

chardog

It will be much longer than August for anything to be a sure thing even IF anything happens. They can’t even apply to FCC/DoJ for the merger until the ink is dry. One of them has a 180 day hold period for commentary from interested parties- and that clock can get held (happened in AT&T deal). Be a long time until the fat lady is singing.. And if she does, I see lots of Sprint divestiture…

Serge

August deadline was mentioned in one of the news articles citing ‘people familiar with the matter.’ It’s when the final agreement document should be ready. As far as I understand DT and Softbank have not even negotiated all the details. But there is no guarantee they will reach the final agreement.

philyew

But Legere is neither the architect nor the master of this deal, nor the operational direction of the resulting newco, should it proceed. This is between Deutsche Telekom and Softbank, and the objectives of the ultimate controlling stockholders will determine how a merged entity operates, far more than the business acumen of John Legere.

If the ultimate aim of the company is to compete with AT&T and Verizon in terms of margin, and the prevailing margin for their competitors remains north of 50%, then you can kiss goodbye to the Uncarrier strategy, whether Legere is in charge or not. The operational performance may be much better than the skeptics believe, but the company will be no better for consumers than AT&T and Verizon are now.

jej

You could’ve just said it would get shot down by the justice department and t mobile would collect another billion dollar fee to pay for more upgrades.

Really? You’re honest? Sales people lie all the time to get the sale. It’s called “selling our soul” You better get into it, or you too will be broke soon!

TMOB2B

You’re obviously an idiot……I have built long term relationships with IT managers and CFO’S, I am a top ten sales exec, not a used car salesman. You do not last as long as I have by lying to anyone, those people last six months and burn bridges…moron

bull$h1t- I left as soon as I saw this news for at&t- why the hell should people suffer when a better n/w, lower prices are available at at&t and the phones are compatible ? I am paying less on at&t postpaid and getting better coverage. I am tired of tmobile’s reluctance to exist.

and also getting emp discount on at&t.

philyew

If you truly had a better option available at AT&T, it would have made sense to move with or without the takeover. Why do you need the ongoing rumors of a deal to justify your choice?

vrm

I thought t-mobile was trying to make it and felt a sense of obligation to help. Believe it or not, many are joining t-mobile just for this reason and the ‘cool’ factor buzz generated by marketing and Legere. When reality hits the street, they will be gone.

Did you know that you can be on at&t postpaid, unlimited T/T and 1 GB, no contract for just $50/mo ? The same as t-mobile simple choice, except your employer discounts apply at at&t.

So, yes, there TRULY is a better option for many.

KP

just bad all around….. Sprint is junk….

Irfan

many years past away with this kind of news , i believe this is paid news by sprint to damage t mobile stock and trust ….

at this point, give up and move on ( to at&t or something). They will keep trying till they succeed.

Anderson

I had a wimax sprint phone, I would hit 500 kilobytes, and it would time out when it went down to 3g. T mobile corporate is going to sell us to the highest bidder, and give us slow sprint like speeds. # fukdamerger # Iwantmegabyte speeds not kilobyte # tmobilewillsuklikewhoreifmergerapproved

Thor1

LOL, That’s funny!! Sprint speeds are horrible and I will bet you 50 dollars that they will slow Tmobile users considerably. Two years from now SprintMobile will be using the excuse that it takes time to upgrade their infrastructure and that birds didn’t allow them to upgrade a city. They have been promising this spark/network vision for a while and people are leaving in droves.

Anderson

I was reading their forums and this is their standard response, once they start merging our chatter is going to be very much the same. Just wait and see, (much like their not right now network).

618.

Re: Why does Sprint suck so much?

SprintCare

Jun 2, 2014 4:52 PM

(in response to ———)

angie646 Thanks
for reaching out. I apologize for the inconsistent service you are
experiencing. Due to our nationwide upgrades the towers have not been
performing as expected. Our technicians are working expeditiously to
complete this process. Once our towers are completed we can ensure
better quality service. We certainly would hate to lose you as a
customer. Allow us to turn this around. Remember we are here for you!
Anntenetta Sprint Social Care Team

SPRINT SERVICE SUCKS!!

SQUIRMS0201 Jul 2, 2012 12:45 PM

I HAVE HAD SPRINT
SINCE SEP OF 2011 AND THE SERVICE WAS OK UNTILL FEB 2012. I HAVE CALLED
SPRING OVER 10 TIMES SINCE THEN AND ALL THEY CAN SAY IS THAT SINCE I
HAVE USED MINUTES ON MY PHONE THEN THE SERVICE IS GOOD. I CANT CALL OUT
OVER HALF THE TIME AND THE 3G SERVICE ALWAYS SHOWS A O INSTEAD OF 3G NO
MATTER WHERE I AM. WHEN I SEND TEXT MESSAGES ON MY IPHONE IT DOES NOT GO
TO SEND AT JUST REJECTS THE MESSAGE AND I HAVE TO KEEP SENDING. IS
ANYONE ELSE HAVING ISSUES LIKE THIS? I THINK IT SUCKS THEY HAVE US
LOCKED INTO A CONTRACT AND WE PAY ARE BILL EVERYMONTH BUT THEY DO NOT
SUPPLY THE SERVICE WE ARE PAYING FOR!!!! I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND SPRINT
TO ANYONE OR EVER HAVE THEM AGAIN!!!

Ivan Richards

Is Sprint what is going to make Verizon and ATT shake in their boots. Hahahahahaha Those messages are like two years apart!!!

vrm

maybe they are shaking with laughter and rubbing their hands with glee.

Matt C

Sprint buys t mobile for 32 billion it’s on pc magazine!

Johnny I

As a T-Mobile employer I have watched the company flourish into a more viable network, better customer care and over achieving while under promising. I can’t be more proud, even though I feel like sprint buying T-Mobile is like a bad aftertaste I feel it might be the only hope in getting more spectrum and having more caliber in competing in the ever changing telecommunications industry. I have a feeling that if soft bank does buy T-Mobile through Sprint that they would kill of the “weaker” brand and keep T-Mobile as the main brand. This will definitely comfort future customers more but will hopefully regain or maintain the trust of current ones

Mexican Food

Hopefully the FCC tells Sprint no… Currently if they combine they would be slightly smaller customer wise than att.

vrm

BOTH will die, eventually, leaving 2 big ones, again. This merger will NEVER work, PERIOD. Some goons on W.S. and the companies will get rich(er) quick and thats about it.

cca1984

Johnny,

Do you think Tmo/metropcs employees would get the Axe or sprint/boost employees ? Just curious what everyone’s take on it would be. For instance, their indirect Corp channel of account Rep’s. Not sure who would survive the cut and curious to get your input

Nearmsp

AT&T too said, T-mobile will go bankrupt if they do not buy it. T-mobile took market share from all parties. Now Sprint, one of the worst managed wireless companies is bleeding and the failed leadership is unable to turn it around after 7 years of continuous losses. The only way they can do that is to kill the competition. If US was not the crony capital of the world, the political hacks sitting as FCC commissioners would not be rubber stamping and certifying that this will not lead to reduced competition. If FCC has any shame, both it and FTC will tell Sprint to guy for a hike. Time will tell how corrupt we have become.

Mexican Food

T-mobile has WiFi calling/texting and their own network…

Omar Boyer

I really dont want this to happen but if it does att or verizon for me ugh it just sucks just when i was enjoyin tmobile service rumors like this start…

Justin Merithew

I don’t see why people are instantly going to jump ship. Yes Sprint doesn’t have the best track record with mergers, but they’re under new management. If this is done right it could work out pretty well for customers. I’m willing to give them a few months to see where things go.

kevev

Not new management. New owner. Only change seen at Sprint is throttled unlimited data. You can say goodbye to that on T-Mobile if Sprint buys them out.

Omar Boyer

Because i had sprint plenty of times before they eff up everything wimax was crap, there spark is the same i tried it here in LA. Spark was just sad i tried it on the g2 1-3 mbps dwn, call quality horrible couldnt hear the person i was talking too, txt messaging all effed up on the phone it said message sent the other person never got it,dropped calls i had a lot on sprint . Now on tmobile its the opposite up to 50 mbps here in La, hd call quality, txt massaging always works and dropped calls i had zero.

GinaDee

The day they announce this officially is the day that the clocks over at T-Mobile stop working.

Network upgrades will stop. No need to keep investing in your network when you are going to be bought out anyways as is.

Customer service will suffer. Turnover over rumors of layoff’s will swell. No employee likes to work in an atmosphere of uncertainty.

I sense AT&T/Cricket will be the beneficiaries of a distracted T-MobileSprint pair up.

xmiro

you don’t know that for a fact, unless you’re on the inside which i highly doubt you are

vrm

already left for at&t this week. I am sure many will follow. This time no turning back. Only reason I kept coming back is out of civic sense- looked like they were trying.

anyway, DT only gets $16b cash; not sure why they are selling while ahead ?!

Europe is a dead end – tmobile is adding subs to the tune of a small European country each quarter ! And ARPUs in Europe are crashing to less than 1/2 their current ARPU.

philyew

If TM leadership were to make real your vision, it would be the most foolish thing they could do since it would confirm the one thing that will force the federal authorities to kill the deal. Making TM less competitive before the takeover makes absolutely no sense.

Dakota

Let the layoffs begin & get ready for more pissed off reps who don’t care… And probably more in the Phillipines or India too

KingCobra

Expect these 2 million customer adds to end while this transition is going on. I’ll be looking out and ready to port out to AT&T or Verizon if the FCC approves it. About tired of this buyout stuff every couple years.

Dakota

I’m sticking with my 3gb of LTE on Straight Talk for now. $45

Chad Dalton

yeah if its gets to crazy…thats where i heading back to!

JosephLagalla

Think I’m going to buck the trend here and say that I’m eager for this to happen providing they keep most of T-Mo’s management. More customers, more spectrum, lower prices(grandfathered at least).

KingCobra

What would be the incentive to keep lower prices when you’re already as big as the Big 2? Son can just raise prices to their level so that he can get the same 50% profit margins.

JosephLagalla

The incentive would be to keep customers faithful and keep them coming in the door. Doesn’t matter what your profit margins are if there are no customers. I expect some change in pricing, but nothing dramatic.

KingCobra

That would be true except where else would they have to go? Verizon? AT&T? There will be no other alternatives.

JosephLagalla

They would still go. The alternative would be prepaid.

KingCobra

Postpaid service is still by far the most preferred type of service in the US for multiple reasons (family plans, subsidies, handset financing, etc). That being said, there will be no other postpaid options. Some are willing to believe Son will lower prices out of the goodness of his heart. I know that business is business and money talks so I do not believe him.

JosephLagalla

You asked for alternatives with no specifics. I gave you a few. As for skepticism on Son’s words, business is a balance. You need to plan to buy and hold, which requires planning not immediate and dramatic change. In any case, the legal hurdles for this merger are steep and though I’m eager for a merger, I don’t see one happening. So, speculation and arguing really won’t do much.

if this merger happens and they allow the current executives of tmobile to continue to head things.. it may work… ill keep an eye out for that.. if they let sprint execs take over im out

Paul

That is what most of us are likely looking at. Magenta USA doesn’t want the grand departure of customers it had last time.

Dakota

Time to start registering new url for this blog although you’d get an influx of potential new readers…. I understand the logic but hate the idea of only 3 carriers

BTW, anyone know if Amazon has a deal with carrier(s) for its smartphone?

KingCobra

Biggest benefit to T-Mobile would be the breakup fee. DT could use it to buy some 600mhz next year.

TMO97

I swear this must be the new T-mobile business strategy. Agree to a buyout, then when the deal falls through take the money and run.

I’ve been saying it since the “uncarrier” thing started, this massive push for customers was just a way to make them look better for a merger or a buyout.

They’ve been losing money on the network by giving it away. Customers who don’t understand the wireless industry loved it. Those of us in the loop understood all along, this was not about bettering the company or helping customers, it was about a buyout all along.

if you think softbank is going to leave tmobile upper management in place, or that the “uncarrier” stuff will last longer then this year, you really don’t understand the wireless industry.

itguy08

They lost a pittance on the network and all these upgrades have to be paid for. You have to build a great network to charge a premium for it. In many places T-Mobile is far from a great network (Tons of GPRS/EDGE). They are working towards it.

The costs associated with the MetroPCS stuff which have been hitting these last few quarters.

Tmo97

They had to buy metro just for spectrum.

I know the fcc and other regulatory agencies are already bracing for a fight.

Tmobile simply isn’t viable, long term, as a national carrier. The big two companies allow your kids to watch a Netflix video while driving from Florida to California. TMOBILE isn’t in the same boat. Its about wireless data.

Tmobile gives unlimited data and has fast speeds because there is no one on the network even in large cities.

Time will tell if this will go through, but I left this company two years ago as a field engineer, mainly for the fact that we all saw the writing on the wall. The wireless industry is changing, and tmo doesn’t have a long term game plan. Its about boosting customer count to make a merger look better.

itguy08

Are you kidding me with the junk about watching Netflix from FL to CA? 1st, there are plenty of spots along that trip where there are “NO SERVICE” or 1x or EDGE or Roaming on all carriers.

It’s .3-3GB an hour. That 2 hour movie would pretty much kill your plan on a normal day. Forget a cross country trip watching Netflix.

And given the fact that T-Mobile’s subscriber #’s are increasing people don’t value that type of service. Most don’t leave their area but for once or 2x a year.

We take a long road trip once a year maybe and since I’m driving I only care about limited data for navigation. The wife may play on her phone but a decent 3G connection is fine for that.

T-Mobile has the chance to do it. They just need to build it and things will be fine. As a shareholder I’d rather have a solid, loyal base and decent profits than a base that thinks you overcharge and would bail in a second.

KingCobra

Let me know when you find a carrier where you can stream Netflix from Florida to California. As of right now it doesn’t exist.

philyew

If it was simply a matter putting lipstick on a pig, as you suggest, why spend $3.4 billion acquiring the 700 MHz A block spectrum from Verizon?

Maximus

How can you say TMO has no long term game plan? They purchased the 700 mhz A block from Verizon, they will be very aggressive in the 600 mhz auction, and they’ve talked extensively about the upgrades to their network. That sounds like a long term plan to me. They are very viable. When their network is more on par with the big two, what reason would anyone have to stay with VZW or ATT???

Chardog

Yes, money has to be spent up front on upgrades… Once the network is more on par and there is less to catch up to others, the income from the customer increase will cover the expenses. You have to spend a buck to get a buck. Businesses always start in the red or have to be in the red to do major overhauls. If the company didn’t have a “light at the end of the tunnel” financial projection, they wouldn’t take on a project (such as a major network upgrade). The ROI wouldn’t be there…

sushimane

its gonna be a complicated merger if it actually goes through which i doubt it would with spectrum frequency. what band to drop because sprint has a butt load of unused spectrum that isnt compatible with tmobile. tmobile are already using most of their spectrum to the max but still offering a better network experience in my opinion compare to sprint. Growth wise tmobile is growing at a rapid pace a lot faster then sprint. Out of sprint and tmobile has a higher chance of surviving. if the fcc and doj approve the merger there’s a chance that even a combine company would eventually fail because the racked up debt that accumulated and also the possible bleeding of customers. i just checked out sprint couple of minutes ago just to see how much would be for the same plan i have now with tmobile. tmobile im only paying 74 dollars with unlimited data,text,minutes and insurance with sprint im going to pay 100 dollars for the same thing that’s a dramatic price difference im not willing to pay for 26 dollars more for the samething with no saving on sprint end with tmobile after im done paying off my phone my monthly bill drop. Crossing my fingers Plz Doj and FCC reject this merger

randian

If Sprint actually started using that spectrum it would be tremendous. 20×20 or 30×30 LTE on their 2500 would have monster capacity. Penetration wouldn’t be a problem if built dense enough. I’d be happy if TMO got to use it.

sushimane

yeah from what i heard sprint has the most spectrum out of all carrier but they have the worst management so barely get to use them. I wouldnt mind tmobile having it but the merge would kill competition for the consumers like us. If the merge would keep john as ceo and the tmobile team handle every maybe i would consider it but im afraid of losing my unlimited data and the uncarrier stuff that comes with it. Dont get me wrong i dont have the simple choice plan but have old value plan where it has a limit mintues but now i get unlimited data,text,minutes. with john he would most likely keep tmobile spectrum frequency and make the new carrier into a gsm carrier but he’s just a ceo not a chairman so if a chairman said no more annual contract and back to contract it goes right back but having two foreign company dt,and softbank im kinda iffy about it. so i would keep tmobile as they are. Their the innovator,the maverick ,bring your own device and save. not like sprint which cost a lot more for nothing better and dont save. i have the nexus 5 which can be use on either carrier but im looking to grab the z1s for the camera so if the merger did happen im hoping that 1700/2100 wouldnt be drop or anything because that phone run on those frequency.

dragon1sys

I hope the FCC blocks the sale. It won’t benefit the custs, Sprint has the worst Customer service..why would I stay. Been with T-Mobile for over 12 years

If this merger goes through, I’ll be leaving for AT&T. Sprint is a joke. I left them about 4 months ago and I do not miss their crappy service.

Maximus

Reports suggest that if the merger happens, TMO would be the brand and management that will run the combined company. There would be no need to jump ship. Everyone knows, including Sprint, that in order to be competitive against ATT and VZW, the merged company would have to use TMO tactics and policies. This could be a very good thing for TMO customers. We’d have the added resource, spectrum, etc but keep the TMO benefits.

LNGTR204

I had no idea there were so many industry experts in the TMONews comments. Thank you guys for taking time out of your busy schedules running billion dollar multinational companies to come here and express concerns about this. I mean, I for one feel vastly more comfortable about the state of the company knowing that many of T-Mobile’s customers can come here and see you guys ABSOLUTELY FLIPPING YOUR SHIT.

Seriously. Unless you’re tapping away on your virtual keyboards from a Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile, or SoftBank board meeting, you have no grounds for spreading uncertainty. You’re making things worse.

Jay J. Blanco

Exactly, all we can do is wait until more details are revealed on how this deal is going to be present.

Sounds like a reverse merger to me.

Numbskull

What were you expecting from a comment section on a forum board?
Your post is just as bad as the worst here so get off your high horse.
People express feeling on a forum board just as you did.

Maximus

All of you that are worried about Spring taking over TMO….IT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. Softbank knows full well that Spring stinks. TMO is the brand they will keep and Uncarrier will continue. They will just use Sprints resources to help.

philyew

They may well keep the TM brand, if Deutsche Telekom maintains a minority interest in the new company, but until the TM/DT executives stop talking about the prospects of achieving 50% margins, like Verizon are doing currently, I have zero confidence that Uncarrier will survive in the long term.

They have to maintain their level of competitive performance in the short term, or risk the federal authorities blocking the deal for obvious reasons, but there isn’t enough fat in the organization to hit 50% margins while achieving comparable service quality at significantly lower prices than Verizon.

This story is everywhere today. Its in the New York Times, Washington Post & Bloomberg. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Unless the FCC blocks it, its gonna happen. DT has been wanting to dump TMo since BEFORE I worked for them back in 2007 – 2009.. Its been a long time coming, its only ever been a matter of who will pony up the money and who the FCC will approve.

Don Turner

What does this mean for T-Mobile customers

Paul

As of right now it means nothing and T-Mobile is still moving closer to Sprint.
It’s all in the details, of which we dont’ know.

zx6guy

NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chardog

50% Sprint stock… That’s a crap bargain…

dkbnyc

Omnipoint>Voicestream>T-Mobile… That’s how long I’ve been with this company. I’m paying less now and getting more than I was back in the Omnipoint days but that simply due to tech advances. Will a combined T-Mobile/Sprint provide the same advantage? I highly doubt it Competition was fierce back then. The country wasn’t on this big acquisitions and buy-out thing economy. In a day when we have “too big to fail” how can we still be going this down this path? A combined company will have so much debt that lay-offs will be a guarantee. Sure the investor will make a fast buck but the economy will be worse off for it. If America were truly for the “people” we would be going in the opposite direction. Time will tell.

Paul

If it goes through then the details will dictate what the customer base does:
– Sprint takes over and they lose a TON of T-Mobile customers.
– T-Mobile takes over and there will likely be fewer casualties.
– Both companies remain independent and ideally no one leaves, but this is a conflict of interest but Sirius XM does it so it is a possibility.
– The FCC shoots it down and we’re back where we started.

One thing to note is that combining the two would mean access to spectrum T-Mobile can use as well as other technical pieces one can lend to the other. We all know that Magenta has the better data speeds and newer equipment. Then there’s the customer base of each that only increases.
However, it all fails if there is a great exodus again. Many WILL leave if this gets too close to the fire. I suggest T-moUSA get VERY close to DT ear and makes sure this doesn’t blow up all the hard work they’ve done to bring new customers over. I also suggest many customers just hang tight and see what happens. Jump ship too fast and you could be stuck adrift for the length of a contract.

when people hear about it, the same thing will happen that happened during the ATT deal. a ton of people didn’t even bother waiting to see if it would happen. the rumor of it was enough for hundreds of thousands to leave TMO. this deal will be worse. even if TMO is the front brand, people will leave. it’s inevitable. i have a feeling though Softbank wants CDMA to rule the land so they might push to end GSM as stupid as that would be.
Sprint will be the front brand .. no way they operate two separate brands. this Uncarrier thing will effectively be dead the second it’s announced. and DT won’t care because they’ll finally be out of the US business.
even if the deal fails and TMO gets billions again, they’ll lose a ton of customers.

D Velasquez

Softbank is not even cdma in Japan, the title to the CDMA carrier goes to Au and is incompatible network with the rest of the world.

chardog

DT is keeping a minor stake in the company.. They aren’t exiting completely… They just want someone else to be footing more of the bill for things.

Paul

That’s the point I think a lot of people are missing. Softbank isn’t completely buying it out so much as taking a larger stake. DT doesn’t seem to want to let go just yet Magenta USA IS making forward momentum in its market.

Paul

They can operate as two separate brands, but this is a long shot. SiriusXM had to do a lot of work to convince the FCC, but the circumstances are completely different here. I just use it as an example of where the same parent company can run 2 separate competitive companies in the same industry.

If T-Mobile is the front brand I’d stay. That would leave the up lever people in place to continue the forward motion. This is ideal for our end, being T-Mobile customers, but we’re not sure if this is a part of the deal. So long as things remain intact I can see most customers staying.

It’s less likely Sprint would be the front face. They’re a sinking ship, and can’t afford to keep up with the technological moves the other 3 are making. This scenario leads to the grand exodus.

As for CDMA/GSM, I think the prevailing name will have to look at what is acquired and decide which the best route to move forward.
T-Mobile: We have more modern pieces, scrap CDMA. (They are doing it with Metro)
Sprint: Our tech is lame, and theirs is newer. GSM it is!
Ha ha, but that’s my view point. Also, I’m not savvy in the realm of cellular tech and frequencies. I’m sure the others here would have more insight into how that would work from either side.

We’ll have to see what happens. I feel strongly that we, as customers who want the best for T-Mobile, should wait and see what happens. I do not regret waiting out the AT&T failure, but I was more than prepared, with the needed information, to jump to another carrier if it had gone through.

Austin

John Legere has said that “Uncarrier isn’t going anywhere”

Chris

This is such bullsh*t. I just don’t believe it. The FCC even SAID IN THE FRIGGING ATT BUYOUT THEY WANT 4 CARRIERS!!!!!! Shut up with this. And if it did happen? I’d go to AT&T. As much as I hate them and have resisted them, their service and coverage is GOOD. They’re just evil and prices are high so I’ve avoided them.

PK

I for one think this will be a good thing. IMO, 3 strong carries would be better than 2 strong + 2 budget carriers. Softbank would gradually start pushing people off the Sprints CDMA network to Tmo’s GSM, so for us tmo folk this will all be seamless. Doubt we all would see any kind of price spike or our service will all the suddenly degrade.. we will actually get a bigger footprint and i’m all for it. And it seems John Legere and company will stick around too, more win than fail here.

PK

3 strong carriers*

macman37

The major issue/problem that most of see is the impatience of Sprint and T-Mobile wishing to pursue this goal prior to acquiring any 600 MHz spectrum from the upcoming auction. Sprint currently has 800 MHz spectrum, but we see how they are using it – not enough coverage with it. Both of these 2 carriers desperately need more low frequency spectrum like the 600 MHz frequency/spectrum to expand their coverage and improve in-building/obstacle penetration. I’m very sorry T-Mobile subscribers, but it has been already said even by other article writers that the 700 MHz spectrum that T-Mobile acquired from Verizon Wireless is still not enough to completely expand the carrier’s coverage. Attempting to merge right now may cost them dearly at the 600 MHz auction since they have been warned by the FCC that the restrictions on Verizon and AT&T may be reconsidered and/or removed, thus allowing them to have their desired buffet. If we take a few steps back and look at their combined frequencies as 1 carrier, they still will desperately need the 600 Mhz spectrum/frequency that they are about jeopardize their chances of getting. Bad idea and definitely bad timing!!

Marvin Lilmarv Bolden-Mitchell

Wonder why everyone think cdma is going anywhere its not its better voice quality than gsm

philyew

That gets to be an irrelevant argument when HD calling is available, as it has been on TM’s network for the last year and as it is now appearing on other carriers’ networks through the use of VoLTE.

wsj

4 carriers: 2 GSM, 2 CDMA. Until everyone is on LTE, no deal.

Nick Gonzalez

^This

PK

Wouldn’t we be able to utilize their LTE footprint right off the bat? Its just voice and text that would be no good, which lets be real TMO is ok on that front.

D Velasquez

3 carriers, just like in Japan. What are the chances the new merged company will be renamed softbank?? I welcome softbank if that’s the case and hopefully they could bring their line up here too!!

chuey101

i’m cool with this as long as legere and his crew are new management team. Get sprint execs out the door.

Uncarrier Is Dead

if it does go thru John Legere will be shell of his former self. New owners, new expectations, and goals. Johhny’s job is done, he was trying to drum up numbers for DT to get TmoUS sold.

chuey101

i doubt it, he will have more leverage and more tools to put his strategy into overdrive. New owners have known expectations and goals (take share and make money). Legere’s strategy is their surest bet to achieve that so incentives are still aligned.

maximus1901

His goal is to make money for his boss.

Uncarrier Is Dead

exactly
only thing softbank wants is to recover what they lost buying sprint

chuey101

whatever we can agree to disagree. Status quo is (high price low service) is the antithesis of their model. What they have built to date is not just fly by night to get sold, it is a sustainable model that they would be crazy to leave behind. It’s not just a model this point, it’s an asset, i.e. part of their brand value. you guys can go around with your glass half empty view, but time will tell who is right. Either way this is win/win. Either legere gets super charged tmo or they get $1bn severance.

btw there are more ways to make money than jacking prices. How about retention? customer life time value? service? differentiation? marketing? All of these have been improved under Legere, you guys are being overly pessimistic he will change these at the drop of a hat.

DirkDigg1er

Softbank actually bought Sprint at a steal. They also got Clearwire for free.

RiP Uncarrier

Buying anything that forces you to lose money isn’t a steal no matter which way you look at it….
Until there is profit, it’s money going down the drain….
If buying Sprint was such a deal then why is Softbank trying to finance anothey wireless carrier buy? Riddle me that….. lol

DirkDigg1er

Lol. The company has increased in value since being purchased last year.

He may be forced to buy tmo or genuinely want to defeat Verizon. We’ll all find out why at the end of this month.

maximus1901

Sure they’ll be managing sprint and first thing they’ll do is raise prices for TMO subs.
Why is this so hard for you and everyone else to understand: Legere put in place low prices because he had to so TMO would survive. With only vzw and att as alternatives, he’s gonna go what’s best for TMO-sprint and raise prices.

chuey101

maybe it’s hard to understand b/c it’s not as foregone a conclusion as you seem to believe. Legere is the envy of the industry with his model. It is an asset that is not easy for other carriers to mimic (combination of pricing, brand, technology), not something to just churn and burn once they merge. There are more ways to make money than to simply raise prices.

In this business, short term prices are meaningless, everything is about sustainability of future cash flows (strong customer acquisition, low churn, high retention). Meaning happy customers. Lower prices make happy customers who stay on your service longer who generate longer cash flows over time. High prices do not, I repeat, do not guarantee a successful cash generation strategy.

please take your armchair biz strategy elsewhere.

philyew

And yet the 5-year guidance offered by TM talks about targeting 34-36% margin, compared with Verizon which is, as Braxton Carter puts it, “north of 50%”.

Do you really see the process of combining TM with Sprint allowing them to achieve the 50% target that he describes in a reasonable timeframe without raising prices?

chuey101

depends on what margin you’re talking about, if EBITDA, i.e. before impact of capital expenditures, then yeh I do expect them to get close to 50% in a reasonable timeframe without raising prices. There are two sides to the P&L, a merger with spring would have classic cost synergies, literally two retail stores across the street from each other, twice the marketing cost, twice the overhead related to each of those departments. Cost synergies alone should get them huge margin improvements without touching a single dime on the revenue side.

If you’re talking operating income (after capex or with the impact of D&A) then no I expect those margins to be lower b/c they will still be in a growth and transition mode as they are in now, building towers, improving infrastructure, and, if the merger happens, transitioning technology. But this is the cost of business and of pursuing a sound long term strategy.
So I guess TLDR version. Yes they can achieve great margins without ever touching prices b/c there is something called fixed costs and economies of scale working in there favor.

philyew

What proportion of those stores are directly operated?

We don’t know what the prevailing brand is going to be. In the short term there could be a considerable cost as the result of a rebranding requirement.

Here’s an interesting conclusion from an article in the Harvard Business Review a few years ago, which confounds the view that concentrating on cost synergies has a significant early impact in post-merger situations:

“After a merger, managers should ignore the usual advice to strive primarily for improving the bottom line through cost reductions. Instead they should make it a priority to strengthen sales and marketing in order to sustain profitable revenue growth. That’s because revenue growth is necessary for earnings growth, the most reliable engine for driving total shareholder returns over the long term.

These insights came from our recent study of 270 mergers in various countries and regions. We found that in most cases sales growth had slowed dramatically after the merger—on average, it had dropped six percentage points. (The figures in this article are weighted averages adjusted for industry trends and refer to three years pre- or postmerger.) That decline led to a reduced rate of earnings growth, by 9.4 percentage points, and a consequent reduction in value creation: The firms’ market-capitalization growth decreased by 2.5 percentage points.”

chuey101

First, fair question on directly owned vs not but fact remains synergies exist with a heavily retail focused business. Second, notice the article says revenue growth and not price increase. It is still not a foregone conclusion that one leads to another. In fact revenue growth in this business is more correlated with customer acquisition and retention which actually argues for REDUCING prices in the short term to drive growth a la the etf subsidy program. This is not a monopoly. They can grow revenue without increasing prices because there is share to be gained. Which was my point from the start.

philyew

I’m not saying that other scenarios are not possible, but many people are assuming that Softbank will embrace the philosophy that DT have allowed John Legere to pursue at TM and that simply the presence of Legere as CEO will somehow guarantee the continuation of Uncarrier. I think you need to look at Sprint to see the characteristics to be expected.

Son has had a year to show an inclination to become more disposed toward the Uncarrier philosophy. It isn’t happening. Instead the FCC just hit Sprint with the largest fine ever levied for their failure to comply with Do Not Call rules. Despite the Librarian of Congress citing liberal unlocking rules to justify reasserting DMCA over cell phone unlocking, Sprint continue to drag their feet and won’t be delivering all new devices capable of domestic unlocking until February 2015.

This isn’t a failure to deliver the voluntary stuff that’s at the heart of the Uncarrier philosophy, it’s a failure to meet compliance standards…and yet somehow, when they gain the volume to match AT&T and Verizon they will magically transform to a consumer friendly organization? Dream on.

What I find most disconcerting is the fact that Braxton Carter talks about being able to achieve comparable margins to Verizon’s current levels, if the merger takes place. Does he not realize that the successful outcome of Uncarrier logically has to be that the industry must generally re-align to targets much closer to TM’s? That an industry with its three top vendors achieving 50% margins is doing nothing other than more thoroughly soaking its customers?

chuey101

Look anything is possible so maybe sprint DNA wins over tmobiles. Time will tell. Maybe margins are unachievable due to contraction of pricing overall which is also possible. I think that is probably more likely tho of the two. And on Braxton he has also said, most recently at Jp Morgan investor conference, that this is a scale game and made specific references to the correlation between fixed costs and profitability. Again time will tell!

philyew

It’s what he said at that JP Morgan event that concerns me lol!

We’ll see how it all turns out, but there’s a reason that a free market economy like the US has had a century of legislation to regulate and discourage the development of highly concentrated markets. It’ll be too late, if this merger is allowed to go ahead and we find out first hand why such rules have been deemed necessary in the first place.

Nice talking with you.

chuey101

actually was a pleasure. I don’t mind opposing views as long as they are intelligent. We will see what happens!

xmiro

can’t they up their margin by saving on CAPEX and OPEX? Right now both pay for ~100k towers, stores, and staff, post-merger they can remove about half the towers and fire a bunch of people, and close stores

I seirously doubt prices would go up considering the fact that both T-Mobile and Sprint’s networks don’t even come close to matching Verizon or AT&T on coverage, in fact when it comes to size TMUS and Sprint have almost identical footprint and both cover pretty much only metro areas

philyew

The EBITDA margins that are typically used in the industry to describe relative performance already exclude capital expenditures from the calculation.

Cell site data is not entirely clear, but we do know that TM operates through approximately 50,000 cell sites, while it was reported last year that Sprint would likely reach around 55-60,000 cell site over this summer. It has 38,000 existing sites targeted for its Network Vision program.

There are, however, a considerable number of colocations where costs can’t be shut down in the short term. Crown Castle announced in December that they have 8,000 sites which hosted both Sprint and TM, where there is an average of approximately six years and eight years of current term remaining on all lease agreements with Sprint and T-Mobile, respectively.

Other locations under similar conditions are likely to exist and even if contractual constraints can be overcome, there are still the needs of multiple, disparate networks, using different antennae, to be serviced.

Bottom line, it will take several years for field operations to offer up the kind of reductions in operational expenditure that you anticipate.

The retail side may present greater potential for operational savings, but – as I asked Chuey earlier – what proportion of the stores are directly operated? I don’t mean just which are licensed resellers, but also which are operated as TM (or Sprint) stores by a third party? My local TM store looks like a full corporate outlet, but it’s actually operated by a third party. I don’t know what the operating revenue/expenditure model is, but it seems likely that it is done that way because it already limits TM’s operational liabilities. Thus savings from rationalization may not be as significant.

Merger legislation exists specifically to prevent vendors from being able to use high market concentrations to leverage price increases. The deal would unquestionably raise the market concentration to a point where such a negative effect would be possible. In what way can consumers and federal authorities be reassured that this abuse would not happen?

CEOs and CFOs simply telling us they aren’t going to do it doesn’t cut it. Telling us that they don’t need to do it because of the potential of cost savings from synergies isn’t going to cut it either.

And any CFO telling me that we are OK because he can get to a 50% margin without increasing prices is flat out not going to convince me of anything other than that he should NOT be grasping for a 50% margin in the first place at the same time as telling me his company is pro-consumer.

pbxtech

This is BAD. I didn’t notice anyone commented about LTE technology used between the two and I just what to explore that a bit and hopefully get some additional comments. Sprint and TMO are using 2 different LTE technology and they are NOT the same.

Sprint (TD-LTE) was the reason why Mr. Sonny boy purchase Sprint in the first place.

TMO on the other used (FD-LTE) and so does ATT and BigRed.

So what will become of TMO LTE? Probably converted to TD-LTE so that it will be compatible with Softbank.

macman37

There will be no conversion since Sprint more than likely will have a good portion of the AWS spectrum that they should have gotten if their Board wasn’t such a bunch of dipshits from stopping Dan Hesse from acquiring MetroPCS. That in addition in to TMO’s AWS share prior to acquiring MetroPCS. Although they are going to have a total of 3 other LTE Bands: LTE Band 41 {TD-LTE}, LTE Band 26 {800 MHz ESMR} and their primary, LTE Band 25 {1900 MHz PCS}, NONE of these 3 offer the interoperability capability of bringing your phone from 1 of the Big 3 over to use. AWS will since that frequency and the 700 MHz frequencies are what most other carriers are using.

pbxtech

For sure there won’t be a conversion right away, but I can’t see the merge company maintaining both systems – it would definitely eat up profit. Most like TMO’s (FD-LTE) will have to go down the road. He’s main reason in acquiring Sprint is LTE compatibility with Softbank.

maximus1901

You know sprint has fd lte also right?
And you can’t convert existing fd lte to DT lte because of the band plans that have been in place by fcc

pbxtech

Yup, I see that now – Band 25.

Weird that they would use both flavor, I wonder the hows the trough-put on those devices. Did know they Spring has that band.

Okay.. your prior post was about the company latering discounts to grandfathered customers. This next one is about selling to clearly the worst run cellular provider on the planet. Neither of these indicate a concern for the customer.

If they sell, that’s just business… but if Hesse is in charge, and they intend to stick with CDMA, then this company is dead to me. I’ll be on AT&T faster than you can shake a stick. And there really isn’t that much of a price penalty in going AT&T anymore.

You listening Masayoshi Son?

maximus1901

Cricket wireless is pretty good prices and it’s att lte with some limitations on speed.

randian

“there really isn’t that much of a price penalty in going AT&T anymore”

There will be if TMO is forced to go CDMA, because AT&T would be the only GSM carrier left. Needing a new phone to swap carriers makes it a lot more expensive to leave, so AT&T could raise rates substantially without fear of losing too many customers. CDMA is one of things locking customers into Verizon, which is why they can charge such high prices.

zeiferx

im going to make it very simple. if its announce i’ll let the fcc and the DoJ know all the reasons i have to be against it. But if it gets pass them i’ll be getting my bags ready to jump ship! im not going to stay in a carrier that has change everything just to be on a good position to sell itself to the devil again.
Not only Verizon and AT&T are bad… sprint is the worst when it comes to customer service and quality of service, if you wanna tst someones patience just make them use their service! SMH

Ky

Unfortunately, we have virtually no other “ship” to jump to. Having only a choice between bad and worst.

DisillusionedMobileUser

Legere, like Humm before him, was brought in with a mission. It looks like he’ll succeed and get a good position in the end. DT sellout jackals would burn T-Mobile to the ground if they could. Screw them!

maximus1901

You are free to raise $32bil to buy TMO from DT. This is a business they don’t have any obligation to you nor you to them.

and that’s the hard truth. these companies couldn’t care less really as long as the money exchanges hands.

Ky

@PhoneDog_Cam It would be super helpful if you could outline for the reader a general estimate of time table for a merger like this. Who is involved, who needs to review the application and when. The headline grabbing title of this article makes it appear the deal is nearly done. A week from now all of T-mobile will be Sprint’s customers. Obviously that is not the case, so if its 6-12 months process, it would be nice to know.

Bob

Til the actual deal is announced and presented to the fcc there isn’t a time table.
The party’s involved are already stated in the article.
“Rumor” is on the headline title
If you thought you would be a Sprint customer in a week because of merger, you should probably just keep following along and pay attention because there is no way a merger would be completed in a week.
Mergers take months if not years especially with how much scrutiny this merger is going to encounter.

TYLERDERK

It is not Sprint its Softbank and T-Mobile CEO/Management would be running it Sprint would no longer exist It would become part of TMUS.

Bobby

Considering nothing has been finalized your speaking gibberish…. You have no idea how it will pan out….
Whoever has the largest share will be running the show
Sprint is owned by Softbank so your correction is also moot….
Your opinion is in the majority of us outsiders but doesn’t mean that how the dominos will fall

InfDaMarvel

Actually this has been in talks since the day Son brought Sprint. The basis and idea for the plan has already panned out.

Qwerty

If this goes through I’m gone, I left Sprint for Tmobile with idea of never dealing with sprint again… Sprint is the horrible and more debt isn’t going to make Sprint any better

Aurizen

if the deal goes through what service will be used?

David

Way too early to know, everything is still speculation.

Aurizen

I see, wouldn’t it make sense for it to me T-Mobile sine GSM is better and more advance?

chuey101

t-mo has proper infrastructure in place to leap frog others including ATT, i would be shocked if they dont continue to build out their tech. Also given tmo’s engineers have proven to be head and shoulders above any of the other 3’s teams.

DirkDigg1er

How are they above ATT or Verizon? ATT seems like the most improved brand in the last 3 years.

Mexican Food

Att and Verizon are ahead they just have slower networks because they have a lot more customers.

pbxtech

IF Legere was in-charge, it would be GSM.

IF Hesse was in-charge, just to screw everybody, it would CDMA.

DirkDigg1er

In either scenario GSM would survive until LTE is completed.

xmiro

GSM. T-Mobile has the better network overall and CDMA is going away as a voice technology. Going GSM would also allow SoftBank customers to roam in the US

John Brown

If this happens, will Owensville Ohio get at least 3g on T-Mo and no more off network roaming on Sprint?

I don’t even care at this point, as long as my plan stays the same. My bill does not change, and the network gets better.

DirkDigg1er

Son is a smart businessman. Offering 17% premium per share to keep break up fee low is a good move. Also by showing interest in both brands he can win over customers. I wonder what strategy will they use next to get approval?

cca1984

If the seal went through, do you think Tmo ( & metropcs) employees would get the Axe or sprint?

It doesn’t matter if Sprint disappears or not. Three big companies isn’t going to be in the publics interest ever.

InfDaMarvel

Ill take 3 over 2 anyday. And ATT and Verizon will overwhelm both Sprint and Tmobile if they are alone

Wilfredo Martinez

What evidence do you have that Sprint and T-Mobile will go out of business if they stay in the market as independent companies ? How can such a thing be proven? I highly doubt we would be left with 2 companies . We have 4 now and 2 of them want to merge just for the sake of it in order to create scale so no way.

InfDaMarvel

I said 3 over 2 (so 3). Which is what you just said in a different way (through merger). And its just an assumption based of the market they control, the profit they they have yet to see. Which still how how many billions of dollars in debt. And one factor on Tmobile side is that their owner has been trying to sell for how many years?

mwolverine

With all the pessimism flying around I’m going to try and be optimistic that someone won’t be buying tmo unless he had a good plan to compete. I can’t see this failing as badly as people think. If DT wants to get rid of tmo so badly, it might be worth having an owner who wants tmo. He’ll be smart enough to know that the tiniest loss in customer confidence will be a disaster in terms of customers leaving for Vzw and att so I trust that they’ll have a good plan in place.

Wilfredo Martinez

DT should stop selling itself to its competition! If they really wanted to get rid of T-Mobile they can easily sell to Dish networks or Comcast or an entity that isn’t in the U.S yet. They obviously do not want to get rid of T-Mobile that badly because they want to keep a 20% stake on the new merged company if this even happens. What DT wants is $ but doesn’t want to work hard with its U.S T-Mobile unit in order to grow. In other words they are looking for an easy way of making $ out of their U.S T-Mobile unit.

philyew

I don’t see anything stopping Dish or any other company from outside the US mobile industry calling on DT and dropping an offer on the table.

DT will sell to anyone offering the right price, but they have to make the offer to start the ball rolling.

Wilfredo Martinez

Dish has stated before, that they can’t outbid Softbank. DT is going to sell to whoever gives them the best deal. Softbank is negotiating with DT and offering 32 billion, as well as allowing DT to also own a 20% stake within the new “bigger” company, and also offering a break-up fee for 1 billion… What does DT have to lose with such an offer? I am pretty sure Dish and other entities have approached DT but DT is looking for $, not just to sell.

philyew

But DT have a duty to their stockholders to get the best value from this sale. If Softbank offer the best deal, then there is little choice possible.

Wilfredo Martinez

Good for DT they’re doing their duties, that’s great. Too bad that the best value is to sell to the competition, making such deal not in the public’s interest. The FCC is here to protect the public’s interest and together with the DOJ they will block the deal. Because corporations can’t continue to screw consumers especially U.S consumers who’s had enough from monopolies.

philyew

I certainly hope you’re right.

mwolverine

Comcast???? I’d leave in a heartbeat.

Wilfredo Martinez

At least there would still be 4 independent wireless companies competing.

xmiro

everyone’s just yapping away, meanwhile SoftBank nor Deutsche Telecom have even signed anything. They haven’t even done due diligence on each other, or done projections on the likelyhood of regulatory approval or what kind of concessions they’ll have to make in case the government decides to approve with conditions

jeremyvbk

First of all T-mobile will not “buy” sprint. Sprint is a sub name for the Softbank mostly owned US carrier. Softbank is the owner. If a merger happens, Most likely it would be a complete new name, maybe just name it Softbank Mobile. But to those who complain about CDMA you are complaining about details you do not Have facts on. It is easy, shut down the GSM, WCDMA, and CDMA/EVDO networks in 2 years, and Launch An LTE only Network, running VoLTE on all bands. You keep Band 4, Band 25, and Band 41 mainly in cities, and use Band 26/Band12 for most rural areas, improving Coverage at a lower cost. But that plan would reduce cost of running Legacy technology, and can reduce the number of towers in the process. As well as killing duplicate sites with sprint and Tmobile You can keep cost Hikes minimal, and Improve Network stability.

Chris Atlanta

I’ll fkng leave in a heartbeat if Tmo ends up under Sprint or Comcast. In a fkng HEARTBEAT!

nanex

For those that watched the NBA playoffs last night…Did you notice the Sprint Logo and the purple background (T-Mobile like), is this a sign of things to come.

TrueCopy

I shudder at the thought of being a Sprint customer again. It has been years and years, but the customer service was so bad, I couldn’t stand it. As others have mentioned Sprint also has a terrible record with mergers – re:Nextel.

All that said, I was with TMo back before the AT&T merger debacle, and jumped ship when it seemed like a sure thing and just before it broke apart. I think I’ll stay put this time, and see what happens.

Peter x-employee

I like tmobile and I worked for them till I quit 2 weeks ago..worked for 6.5 years, but the service is complete shit .. Don’t get me wrong I like paying 20&$ for my dealer line. I went to Wisconsin over weekend couldn’t get signal to save my life.. If I got mauled by a fucking bear would suck.. Lol but ya I hope this deal goes thru.. Now that I gotta cancel dealer line I think I’m gonna switch to verizon

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